[Mb-civic] The Palestinian Gandhi

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

The Palestinian Gandhi
by Ran HaCohen | www.antiwar.com | May 2, 2005

"Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?" is a quite popular question, especially
abroad. You won't often hear it asked (with the inevitable self-righteous
shrug) here in Israel: after all, the Israeli culture itself worships
violence, with the semantic field of "war" being the richest in the modern
Hebrew language, with militarism as the state religion, and with popular
wisdom expressed in rules of thumb such as "where force won't do, try more
force."

But Americans love the Gandhi riddle. While their governments give Israel
gigantic military aid, private Americans with the best intentions - like
actor Ben Kingsley - translate the film Gandhi into Arabic and screen it
all over the occupied territories as an example for the Palestinians to
follow.

The intentions of "the Gandhi Project" must be noble. And though
international law and conventions unambiguously acknowledge the right of
occupied peoples to use violence against their oppressors - just like
guerrilla fighters did under Nazi occupation - the question whether
violence or nonviolence serves their cause better is for the Palestinians
to decide. There are, of course, several convincing arguments in favor of
abandoning the violent resistance, most notably the huge benefits that
Israel draws from portraying the Palestinians as "terrorists" to
legitimate the use of its overwhelming military superiority against them.

If "the Gandhi Project" wants to be truly helpful, however, I have a
better idea for it. Instead of screening Gandhi in the occupied
territories, let it screen throughout America the footage of the recent
demonstration in the Palestinian village of Bil'in (to be found on Gush
Shalom's Web site). This footage can help inform Americans about the
realities of the occupation largely equipped and financed by their taxes -
a much more urgent task than teaching Palestinians about the late Indian
leader. It also suggests an unusual solution to the puzzle of the
"Palestinian Gandhi."

The Bil'in Demo

Bil'in is a small village in the occupied West Bank. The apartheid wall,
advancing full speed ahead behind the effective smokescreen of the
"disengagement plan," is now being built there, almost touching the houses
of the village and separating it from most of its lands. These lands will
be given to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Sefer, which is built on
lands taken from the Palestinian villages all around it and inhabited by
ultra-orthodox Jews (the Zionist state managed to mobilize even parts of
this traditionally non-Zionist Jewish sector for its colonialist project).

On Thursday, April 28, about 1,000 Palestinians and some 200 Israeli
guests, invited by people of Bil'in, participated in a demonstration
against the wall. All the participants undertook in advance to avoid all
violence, no matter whether they had seen the Gandhi film or not. But even
before the demo could reach the site of the fence, it was savagely
attacked by the Israeli security forces, which bombarded it with tear-gas
bombs without the slightest provocation. Among the demonstrators were
Palestinian minister Fares Kadduri, presidential candidate Mustafa
Barghouti, Uri Avnery, and Israeli Knesset member Muhammad Barakeh, 
who
was wounded during the attack.  The peaceful demonstration was a welcome
occasion for Israeli special units to wound several demonstrators with the
latest innovation, introduced here for the first time: especially painful
plastic bullets covered with salt.  Indeed, the so-called Jewish Genius is
never exhausted.

Israeli Army Incriminates Itself

So far, you may say, there's nothing new. Gandhi never promised the
British wouldn't use violence: he propagated nonviolent uprising in spite
of British violence. Indeed, the army's provocation did not work and the
demonstration remained nonviolent. So here is what happened next, as
reported in Ha'aretz, April 29, 2005:

"During the clashes, undercover security forces mingled with the
demonstrators and began to throw stones at the soldiers and police,
demonstrators said. The undercover security forces had provoked the police
and soldiers into opening fire with rubber bullets and tear gas. The
demonstrators said they had not thrown stones at the soldiers and police."

The "undercover forces" mentioned are Israeli soldiers dressed as
Palestinians who mingle in the crowd. Such forces - well-trained in Arabic
language and customs - have been employed by Israel since the First
Intifada in the late 1980s, often used also as death squads for the
summary killing of "wanted" - i.e., unwanted - Palestinians. Now we hear
that these undercover Israeli soldiers threw stones.

Well, you may argue, "demonstrators said." Demonstrators always say
such things. Who said such undercover soldiers were present in Bil'in at
all? After all, they were dressed as Arabs, so how can you tell? Even if
the undercover soldiers were present, why should I trust the
demonstrators' accusations?

Okay, good points. But listen to what the officer in charge had to say to
Ha'aretz about the event: "Military sources . added that the undercover
forces had only started throwing stones after Palestinian youths had
adopted such tactics. 'Stone-throwing by the undercover forces is part of
the way in which they operate in such instances,' the sources said."

Oh, so undercover units definitely were present in Bil'in - the army
itself admits that (in fact, it's very easy to spot undercover soldiers
when they start making arrests). And not only did they throw stones on
this occasion: stone-throwing is part of their job as a rule - again, the
army itself says that! The only disputed point is whether they started
throwing stones before or after demonstrators did so. Now think for
yourself: why on earth should an undercover agent provocateur throw stones
after some demonstrators do so? Give me one reason. Obviously, the Israeli
officer (identified in Ha'aretz's Hebrew edition as "Lieutenant Colonel
Tzahi") is lying on this point.

We've now got a clear confirmation of what Palestinian and Israeli peace
activists have been saying all along: the Israeli army would not tolerate
a Gandhi-style resistance.

Someone up there in the occupation echelons must have studied Ben
Kingsley's film long before "the Gandhi Project" got started and reached
the conclusion that nonviolent resistance is not in Israel's interest. To
thwart this threat, Israel employs soldiers whose task is to turn a
peaceful demonstration into a violent one, by infiltrating it undercover
and throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. During the demonstration, the
army uses these stones as a pretext to break the demonstration by force,
using tear gas, salt, or rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition. In the
aftermath, this stone-throwing - pictured by army photographers who surely
don't miss the stones thrown by their own comrades - enters the world
media as propaganda, depicting peaceful demonstrators as dangerous
stone-throwers.

So the problem is the perpetrators, not the victims: it's Israel, not the
Palestinians. The Palestinians don't have to watch the Gandhi film. They
fought the First Intifada with stones (1987-1993) and were answered with
Israeli bullets. They fought the Second Intifada (2000-2004) with weapons
and were answered with Israeli tanks, Caterpillar bulldozers, and
airplanes. And they now start a Third Intifada, a popular, unarmed,
nonviolent struggle against the strangulating fence, which is answered
with Israeli undercover soldiers who throw stones and want us to believe
the Palestinians have done it.

There are thousands of Palestinian Gandhis out there, then: whole villages
that demonstrate daily and peacefully against the robbery of their land
and livelihood. Alas, their voices are unheard - because of the Israeli
undercover soldiers who throw stones from within these peaceful
demonstrations, and because of commentators and movie stars who then
wonder, "Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?"

***


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